English Heaven Echoed in New Zealand

From Votive Tablets by Edmund Blunden. 1931

Our painters have failed to compete with

the world-masters of myth and allegory-

but they did not waste time,

while they sat in ten thousand

leafy look-outs

and caught the warm shower stealing

and giving odours on the sunny labyrinths,

or the last messages of light

between the village walls and the summer sun.

Our shepherds never doubted,

as they shifted their hurdles

or came to the fair,

that earth

had something of heaven in it.

Let us see whether the vines have budded, whether the blossoms have opened and whether the pomegranates are in flower. Song of Songs 7 verse 11.

     Go to post Gardens Without Flowers for More Inspiration.

Our back garden is often without flowers, or maybe only has drifts of daisies, but it is never without interest with its contrasting leaf shapes and tones. Of course, in sunlight it looks its best, with the dappled light spotting through the trees onto the lawn beneath.